The Cyber Security Dilemma and the Securitisation of Cyberspace
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THE CYBER SECURITY DILEMMA AND THE SECURITISATION OF CYBERSPACE STEVE HERSEE Submitted to Royal Holloway, University of London for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Security Supervised by Professor Pete Adey Professor Keith Martin 1 Declaration of Authorship I Steven Hersee hereby declare that this thesis and the other work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 ABSTRACT This thesis analyses the different securitisations of cyberspace by the Digital Rights Community (DRC) and the British state. It considers both the internal and external characteristics of these securitisations, covering the power relations between a variety of securitising actors and their audiences and the use of language and metaphor to construct cyberspace threats. It considers the consequences of these securitisations, paying particular attention to the interplay between threats to national security and threats to digital rights, which are often framed as competitive and mutually exclusive. After considering the competitive nature of these securitisations, this work frames the conflict as a security dilemma, which has resulted in a spiralling, legal, public relations and technological conflict between the British state and the DRC. This has led to distrust, enmity, an inability to co-operate and a sub-optimal outcome for both national security and digital rights. The characteristics of this Cyber Security Dilemma (CSD) are analysed to help understand why it has arisen, why it has become so intense and why it is proving difficult to mitigate or transcend. Fear, uncertainty and a failure to appreciate the concerns of the other side are established as the most significant causes of the conflict. This thesis draws on historical examples, theoretical material and examples from the television show Hunted, where the researcher was both performer and ethnographer. Techniques to help resolve the CSD are discussed, with attention paid to the need for trust building, interpersonal bonding and security dilemma sensibility. Current and historical attempts to resolve the issue are analysed for their effectiveness and a range of principles are proposed to help guide future approaches to the issue. These include the need to establish trust, work in collaboration with others, reject extreme rhetoric and raise the quality of the debate. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS THE CYBER SECURITY DILEMMA AND THE SECURITISATION OF CYBERSPACE ....................... 1 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 3 Table of contents ...................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures and Tables .......................................................................................... 6 1: Introduction, Literature Review and Methodology .............................................. 7 1.1 Context ...................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Research Design ...................................................................................... 11 1.3 Literature Review .................................................................................... 16 1.4 Approach ................................................................................................. 33 1.5 Chapter Structure.................................................................................... 52 1.6 Ethics ....................................................................................................... 54 2 The Securitisation of Cyberspace: Power Relations........................................ 56 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 56 2.2 Audiences ................................................................................................ 56 2.3 Securitising Actors and Power Relations ................................................ 59 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 92 3 The Securitisation of Cyberspace: Speech Acts .............................................. 95 3.1 Grammars of Securitisation .................................................................... 95 3.2 Heuristic Artefacts ................................................................................ 127 3.3 Connected Securitisations .................................................................... 138 3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 142 4 The Cyber Security Dilemma ......................................................................... 146 4.1 The Security Dilemma ........................................................................... 146 4.2 Beyond Inter-State Conflict ................................................................... 149 4.3 The Cyber Security Dilemma ................................................................. 152 4.4 Intensifying the Security Dilemma ........................................................ 172 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 187 5 Responding to Cyberspace Securitisation ..................................................... 189 5.1 Approaches to Securitisation ................................................................ 189 5.2 Should Cyberspace be Desecuritised? .................................................. 195 5.3 How might we desecuritise cyberspace? .............................................. 197 5.4 The Limitations of Desecuritisation ...................................................... 201 5.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 204 6 Overcoming the Cyber Security Dilemma ..................................................... 206 6.1 History Repeating Itself ......................................................................... 206 4 6.2 Attempts to Overcome the Security Dilemma ...................................... 207 6.3 Can Security Dilemmas be Overcome? ................................................. 234 6.4 How to solve the Cyber Security Dilemma ........................................... 236 6.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 254 7 Hunted Case Study ........................................................................................ 256 7.1 Hunted .................................................................................................. 256 7.2 An Exploration of Three Principles ........................................................ 258 7.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 277 8 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 279 8.1 Summary ............................................................................................... 279 8.2 Key Research Contributions .................................................................. 282 8.3 Some Key Principles .............................................................................. 283 8.4 Contributions to Research Design and Practice .................................... 286 8.5 Further Work ......................................................................................... 286 9 Glossary ......................................................................................................... 288 Appendix 1: List of Interviewees ........................................................................... 289 10 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 290 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 348 5 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1.1: The relationship between Securitisation Theory and the security dilemma ............................................................................................................ 16 Table 1.1: GCHQ interview topics ..................................................................... 44 Table 1.2: Open Rights Group interview topics ................................................ 45 Table 1.3: Hunter interview topics ................................................................... 49 Table 2.1: Snowden’s language of martyrdom ................................................ 76 Figure 2.1: Snowden - ‘A fitting poster hero for our times’ .............................. 78 Figure 2.2: Prison Ship Martyrs war memorial ................................................ 78 Figure 2.3 Tim Cook in Time magazine ............................................................. 87 Table 3.1: Technification examples................................................................... 116 Table 3.2: The state as expert ........................................................................... 117 Figure 3.1: Shadowy Employees at GCHQ ........................................................ 135 Figure 3.2: Concealed faces within GCHQ’s ‘Minority Report’ Campaign ........ 135 Figure 3.3: GCHQ recruitment advert ............................................................... 136